Pre-GTD task management systems recommended that you assign a priority
to each task. When looking at a list of tasks, you then choose the
ones with the highest priority. David Allen (author of GTD) includes
‘priority’ as one of the things that you should consider when you are
deciding what to do, but only after you have considered context, time
available, and energy available. Which makes sense. As Merlin Mann
says, it doesn’t matter if mowing your lawn is your highest priority
when you’re sitting in an airplane. Only if you’re in the right
context with the right amount of time and the right amount of energy,
should you consider which of the remaining available tasks is highest
priority.
The risk, though, is that there are so many little ’easy’ tasks that I
could do instead of important, ‘hard’ tasks. I’m also really good at
convincing myself that I don’t have the energy available to do harder
tasks when I really should. So when I get back into GTD, I process all
the things hiding in the back of my brain which leads to the creation
of lots of simple tasks. Google this, buy that, throw away the other
thing. But the two things that I really want to be doing more are
writing and programming. Both of those take blocks of uninterrupted
time and effort, so I end up subconsciously shying away from them. I
actually feel better about it, too, because now I have all these other
tasks that I can do instead. So, I feel productive, even when ignoring
the more important things that I should be doing. I’m moving more
efficiently, but in the wrong direction.
I’ve avoided that a little bit this time by doing a little bit of
prioritization each night before I go to bed. I look through my todo
list and pick about 3-5 things that I want to get done the next day. I
tag those with the ’today’ tag and then the next morning I look at
that list and start working on those things before doing anything
else. I’ve heard this
trick from a lot of
people before, so I don’t remember who I heard it from first.
So far it’s been effective for me. The problem always starts again
though when I go back on service, because then I can only really focus
on one thing and that is getting my work done at the hospital. We’ll
see if I can somehow figure out a way to get at least one non-work
thing done on each of those days.
Thanks to
Merlin Mann’s recent series of podcasts on GTD,
I’m getting back on the GTD wagon (for about the 100th time). I read
Getting Things Done in 2002 and have been
trying to implement it ever since. I’ve had periods where I followed
it religiously for a month at a time, but it’s never completely stuck.
From what I hear, this is normal and I accept it now. This won’t be
the last time that I restart GTD. Even when I’m not actively using
GTD, I think in GTD terms, thinking about next actions and projects
and ruthlessly placing projects on the backburner. I just have trouble
sticking with the entire GTD workflow, especially the ubiquitous
capture (I trust my brain too much) and the weekly reviews (they just
seem too painful). I’ve used every online and offline tool in the
book, too. Despite not doing so great with GTD, I’d say my life is an
overwhelming success.
So why try again? Each time I have gotten back on the bandwagon, I’ve
had a surge in productivity. I wrote more. I made some clear decisions
on issues that I had been procrastinating on. I wouldn’t be surprised
if each of my major life improvements over the past 10 years was
associated with a time where I got back on the GTD wagon. I can’t
prove that, because I don’t keep enough details, but I always feel
better and think clearer when I’m on GTD.
But, I’ve failed so many times… what kind of hubris makes me think
I’ll get it this time?
“Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
Parenthood has taught this to me. Of course we don’t expect our kids
to learn each skill the first time they try. We expect that walking
and reading and writing and bike-riding will take time, multiple
efforts, and multiple failures. But eventually they will get it. Yet,
with each failure, kids get upset (to varying degrees). The answer at
that point is not to tell them to give up. Yet, that’s what I do to
myself. So, I’m going to treat myself like a kid and let myself fail,
understanding that each failure will get me closer to that one time
where I will succeed.
I think twitter and facebook stunt my writing. The more that I read
tweets, the more self-conscious I get when I write. Not that my
writing is all that original, but I still feel that it is something
that comes from me. I worry so much about presenting ideas of others
as my own without even remembering that I had seen the ideas before.
In the old days, the things that I read were long form. Books,
articles, maybe blog posts. They each left an impression on me, maybe
good, maybe bad, but I had a sense where they were coming from. When I
wrote I could reliably say where the inspiration for my idea had come
from. Now with twitter, I see all these ideas and thoughts, some of
which are interesting, but few of which leave a lasting impression on
me. So now I have this fear that the things that I am considering my
own ideas are actually the ideas of others, improperly attributed. Of
course, that’s silly. No idea is original, but it’s just serious
enough to stifle my writing. Because, as a writer, I am the
scaredy-cat of all scaredy-cats and any criticism of my writing bites
deep to the heart. I also know that this is something that I just need
to get over. You cannot express ideas without inviting criticism.
I also don’t just want to let criticism fall off me. I want to learn
from critics. But saying all that doesn’t necessarily make it any
easier. Even writing this post, I feel like a fraud. I’ve said that
I’m a writer a couple times up there, but what evidence do I have to
support that claim? Most of my blog posts are so simple or technical
or repetitive. Nothing that would strike me as an ‘original idea’.
This whole post makes it seem like I am more important or better than
I really am.
What is my point with all this? I want to be able to write. I know
that there are people out there who could benefit from things in my
brain (maybe not a lot). I know that there are people out there who
can help me (in ways that I can’t even expect). So, I want to write
and I want it to be freely flowing and I don’t want to force myself to
feel that what I am writing is useful or authoritative or perfect. I
apologize to you, Vinod, my biggest critic. I know that you are
cringing inside because you’re thinking that anyone who reads this
will think that you are so full of yourself for even considering
yourself a writer. But, this is my first step in letting my guard down
to get this blog flowing. Because I do believe that writing is healthy
and will make me a better person.
In addition to committing to blogging more frequently, I’m also going
to try a twitter hiatus for a week and see what happens.
Now that we have 3 kids, I’m always internally comparing one to the
other. Sure that’s not healthy and will probably breed resentment in
them during their teenage years, but what’s a bad parent to do?
I need an app that takes 2 kids’ birthdays and then shows me what day
it was when the older kid was the age that the younger kid is now.
Wow, that’s a confusing sentence. In simpler terms, if I have a
3-year-old and a 1-year-old, then the app would show me the day that
the 3-year-old was 1.
Then, I want the app to take that date and go through all of my
personal files (photos, notes, twitter stream, facebook stream, etc.)
and show me what was happening in our life around that day.
In short, it would show a snapshot of what our life was like when the
older kid was the age that the younger kid is now. I’d call it
WhenIWasYourAge or something catchy like that.
Seems simple enough to build, but I don’t see myself getting to it
anytime soon. Smart people say to set your ideas free and if they love
you they’ll come back. (Wait, I think I’m mixing metaphors here).
I’m not the handiest guy in the world, so I’m pretty proud that I was
able to fix a flat tire on Kavi’s 12" bicycle.
DISCLAIMER: I have almost no idea what I’m doing. Follow my
instructions at your peril.
I’ve fixed flats before, but it’s been a long time. Fixing it on such
a tiny bike was a lot harder than I thought. The manual makes it seem
so simple. “Remove the wheel, take the tube out, patch the tube and
then replace the tube and tire.” Right… I got stuck at step 1.
Removing the wheel isn’t straightforward. Most of the videos available
online focus on adult-sized bikes which have quick-release tires. You
pull a release lever back and then pull the tire off. Kids bikes have
bolts instead of quick-release levers. You have to loosen the bolts,
but you don’t have to take the bolts completely off. You also have to
take off the plastic chain guard that prevents kids from rubbing their
legs against the chain. Finally, there’s this little metal piece that
attaches the wheel to the frame. I think it’s there for the
pedal-brake to work. In any case, you have to take that off. Once the
wheel is loosened, you have to unhook the wheel from the chain. This
is also easier in big bikes which have multiple gears, making it
possible to place the chain in a position to easily get it off the
wheel. In a kid’s bike, it’s harder. Once I loosened the bolts on both
sides of the wheel, I pushed the wheel a little forward, which
loosened the chain and made it easy to release from the chain.
The next difficulty was getting the tube out of the tire. All the
videos make this seem so easy. Place a tire lever in the tire to pull
it over the rim. Put another tire lever in and slide it around the rim
to get the rest of the tire out. Kavi’s tires are so tight that this
was impossible. I could get the first tire lever in, but when I put
the second tire lever in, it was completely immovable. There was no
way that I was going to be able to slide it anywhere. I finally found
a website where they recommended using a third tire lever. Put the
first two in a few inches apart. Then put the third one in another
inch away from the second one. Finally remove the middle one and move
it an inch past the third one. In this way, I was able to get the tire
off eventually.
I then got the tube out and found the leak. I placed a patch on it,
but when I reinflated the tire, the leaking air just pushed it’s way
through the patch. I tried roughing up the area with the roughing
tool, but that didn’t help. Finally, I resorted to the layman’s
favorite tool: duct tape. I placed the patch, then wrapped it with
duct tape. It’s held together for a few months now.
Hopefully Kavi will graduate to the next size bike before my handiwork
breaks down. On another note, Kavi was easily able to pick up the
basics of riding a bike by following the
REI guide.
I took off the training wheels and the pedals, which allowed him to
get the feeling of balancing the bike without having to keep his feet
on the pedals. Once he got that part, it was relatively easy for him
to balance with the pedals on. He also proved to be a much tougher kid
than I was. Everytime he fell, he got right back on.
I’m not an OS X programmer, but I’ve really enjoyed 2 recent episodes
of the NSBrief podcast. First was Mark Dalrymple’s interview. Here was
my 140 character description:
Today, I listened to
Mark Aufflick’s interview where
he talks eloquently about starting your own business. I love the
perspective he had on his first business and how shutting it down gave
him the necessary (though painful) experience to make his current
business work. He also talked about the importance of computing
history especially given the availability of interesting subjects. He
ended with great advice on the importance of professionalism.
Paraphrased: “Make sure your team is the most professional side of any
relationship.”
I know Mark and
Mark from the
OpenACS glory days and it’s great to hear how
well they’re doing. Computing history was a prominent part of both
talks. I think this is important. Old ideas are always new again. Some
of the ideas that these pioneers had were only limited by the
horsepower we had to work with at the time. Now thanks to Moore’s law,
those limitations are gone, so we should re-investigate those ideas.
Or maybe we’re all just getting old and like to talk about the
good-old-days. :-) It’s nice to see that they both mentioned the
OpenACS period of their programming lives as important. It certainly
was for me. It was also great to hear Mark Aufflick’s voice for the
first time, even though I feel like he’s been a friend for many years.
(Note: See the bottom of this post for updates)
I was honored to to give my
“Emacs for Python Programming”
talk at the inaugural PyCarolinas
conference. The conference was a huge success in every way, thanks to
the efforts of Calvin Spealman, et. al.
I promised that I would post my Emacs setup, so here it is.
Step 0: Prerequisites
This may work with other setups, but here’s what I tested:
Step 1: Clear out any previous customization
As evidenced by the numerous blog posts documenting how to set this
up, it’s not straightforward. I recommend starting from scratch to
make sure everything is set up properly. Once you have it working,
then you can customize it. Make sure to start these commands in your
home directory.
vinod:~$ mkdir old-emacs
vinod:~$ mv .emacs .emacs.d old-emacs/
Step 2: Set up initial Emacs configuration
Create an empty .emacs.d directory and a subdirectory named with your
username. My username is vinod, so we’ll create a directory
structure called .emacs.d/vinod/. The emacs-starter-kit tells emacs
to automatically load any elisp files from that special directory, so
you’ll always have a place to drop custom elisp files.
vinod:~$ mkdir -p ~/.emacs.d/$USER
Create a file named .emacs.d/init.el with the following contents:
Step 3: Create a python virtualenv
We’ll keep all the python-side customization in a virtualenv named
default. It’s important that the name you choose is the same as the
name in the (virtualenv-workon) command in line 45 of Step 2.
vinod:~$ mkvirtualenv -p python2 default
After it does its thing, your shell prompt should change, indicating
that your new virtualenv is activated
Step 4: Install Pymacs
Pymacs is a really cool
piece of software that sets up a 2 way communication between Emacs and
Python, allowing you to control Emacs with python commands rather than
elisp commands. It requires a python piece (Pymacs.py) and an Emacs
piece (pymacs.el). Unfortunately, they’re not installable via pip
or package.el, but installation is easy enough.
(default)vinod:~$ mkdir src
(default)vinod:~/src$ cd src
(default)vinod:~/src$ git clone git://github.com/pinard/Pymacs.git
(default)vinod:~/src$ cd Pymacs
# check to make sure tests pass
(default)vinod:~/src/Pymacs$ make check
# install it (Be sure you're inside your virtualenv!)
(default)vinod:~/src/Pymacs$ make install
# install the emacs extension
(default)vinod:~/src/Pymacs$ cp pymacs.el ~/.emacs.d/$USER/
Step 5: Install other python packages
These helper packages are easier to install:
(default)vinod:~$ pip install pyflakes pep8
The pyflakes and pep8 packages check your code as you type using
Emacs’ flymake mode. Now, deactivate your virtualenv.
(default)vinod:~$ deactivate
vinod:~$
Step 6: Install pycheckers
Flymake is the part of Emacs that checks your code for errors on the
fly. It calls a shell script called pycheckers, so you need to have
a script by that name in your shell’s PATH. Here’s mine
(~/bin/pycheckers):
#!/bin/bash
pyflakes "$1"
pep8 --repeat "$1"
true
Step 7: Install python-mode.el
As I mentioned in my talk, there are multiple Python modes available,
but I recommend using the one named python-mode.el, which is developed
at
http://launchpad.net/python-mode.
It does periodically get uploaded to
Marmalade, but the
auto-completion using pycomplete doesn’t work well on the version that
is there now (6.0.10), so I recommend that you manually download and
install the latest stable version (6.0.12). I’ll update this post once
a stable working version gets uploaded to
Marmalade or
Melpa.
vinod:~$ cd ~/.emacs.d/$USER
vinod:~/.emacs.d/vinod$ curl -L https://launchpad.net/python-mode/trunk/6.0.12/+download/python-mode.el-6.0.12.tar.gz | tar xz
Step 8: Test it all out
Launch emacs and open a python file named test.py. Type the following:
import os
os.path.jo
Wait at this point. You should see auto-completion of os.path.join
followed shortly by a yellow popup showing documentation of that method.
Hitting return should accept the completion. Then type ( and you
should see the method signature in the minibuffer.
Move the cursor over any letter in join. Hit ‘F1’. A window should
popup with the docstring for os.path.join. Hit ‘F2’. A new window
should be opened with the code for os.path.join. Hit ‘F3’. You’ll be
prompted to enter the name of any python command, and Emacs will show
you the docstring.
Type the string ‘blah’ and hit return. The string should be
highlighted in pink and if you mouseover it, the minibuffer will say
undefined name 'blah'. That’s flymake working for you.
Hit C-c C-c and the buffer should be sent to a Python interpreter and
you’ll be dropped in the REPL after the code has been loaded. Any
errors in the code will be reported.
If all of this works, then CONGRATULATIONS!!! If not, let me know and
I’ll see if I can help debug.
Step 9: Customize
All of this is customizable in hundreds of ways. Try M-x customize-group RET python-mode RET to see how.
Step 10: How to create a new python project
Whenever you want to create a new Python project, you have do the
following:
Create a new virtualenv
vinod:~$ mkvirtualenv newproject
Install pymacs into that virtualenv
(newproject)vinod:~$ cd ~/src/Pymacs
(newproject)vinod:~/src/Pymacs$ make install
Install the other pip modules
(newproject)vinod:~/src/Pymacs$ pip install pyflakes pep8
Switch to that virtualenv in emacs
M-x virtualenv-workon RET newproject/ RET
Issues
Changing virtualenvs doesn’t restart Pymacs
For the most part, this won’t affect much, but if you move from a
Python2 project to a Python3 project, you may have problems. The
workaround is to call M-x pymacs-terminate-services, then M-x virtualenv-workon to change your virtualenv, and then finally
M-x load-pycomplete to restart pymacs and pycomplete.
Latest stable version of python-mode.el isn’t on Melpa
I’d much prefer to just load python-mode using the built-in Emacs
package manager.
Pymacs installation is harder than it needs to be
I wish Pymacs could be installed by a 2 step process
- pip install Pymacs
- M-x package-install RET pymacs RET
Which pycheckers to use?
My script uses pep8 and pyflakes. There are a lot of other options out
there and I do not know which is best. See
this post
for more details.
Not using ropemacs any more
In my talk, I used ropemacs. In this setup, I have decided against it.
I was mostly using it for code-completion and documentation lookup,
but I like pycomplete.el better for those purposes. It’s included in
python-mode and it shows method signatures as you type. Ropemacs does
have other features such as project management (easily jumping to
files in the same project), and refactoring (changing variable names
throughout project). I haven’t used those, so I decided not to install
ropemacs.
Project management not included
I haven’t yet decided which package to use for this. I’ll probably try
projectile, but there are many other options, some lightweight
(ropemacs, eproject, pony-mode) and some heavyweight (ecb, CEDET).
References
I gleaned knowledge from all of the following, in no particular order.
Updates
2012-10-27
Thanks to @danpoirier and
@gregnewman for testing. I initially
recommended using the master branch of python-mode.el, but now I
recommend using the latest stable release (as of now) which is version
6.0.12 to avoid problems loading Pymacs. There’s a bug on 6.0.12 with
virtualenv-workon that requires you to put a trailing slash after
the name of your virtualenv, so I’ve updated the init.el file above
to account for those changes.
Autocomplete Mode is an
Emacs mode that tries to guess what word you’re typing and provide
auto-completion. Recently, it started failing in simple scenarios.
It can use various ‘sources’ to try to figure out what you’re about to
type. The simplest source is ac-source-dictionary which is a simple
list of words. If you start typing any of those words, it will try to
autocomplete them for you. Normally, you’d put those words in a file,
with each word on a separate line, but for testing purposes, you can
also add them manually using an elisp function. Here’s the test that
failed for me:
(add-to-list 'ac-user-dictionary "foobar@example.com")
That adds the email address to the dictionary. Then, typing ‘foo’ in
any buffer, should offer to autocomplete the entire email address.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t working.
To debug, I typed ‘foo’ and then did M-x auto-complete, which forces
auto-complete to look for a completion. This resulted in an error in
the Minibuffer:
ac-yasnippet-candidates: Symbol's function definition is void: yas/current-snippet-table
This led me to check which ‘sources’ autocomplete was trying to use:
C-h v ac-sources
(ac-source-features ac-source-functions ac-source-yasnippet
ac-source-variables ac-source-symbols ac-source-abbrev
ac-source-dictionary ac-source-words-in-same-mode-buffers)
So, autocomplete is looking through each one of those sources, trying
to find possible words I might be typing. The third one is called
ac-source-yasnippet, which seems to be where my error is coming
from.
So, I looked into the yasnippet source code and found that, indeed,
there was no function named yas/current-snippet-table. That function
has been renamed to yas--get-snippets-table in version 0.8.0, but
autocomplete is still relying on the old function name. (RANT: Don’t
rename functions that others might be using without providing some
kind of alias, at least temporarily) I looked at the code for
autosnippet on github
and noted that the latest version has been fixed to use the new code,
but it hasn’t yet been released on MELPA. Until it is, the quick
solution is to remove ac-source-yasnippet from ac-sources.
(delq 'ac-source-yasnippet ac-sources)
Then typing ‘foo’ autocompletes to ‘foobar@example.com’.
It seems that autocomplete should be more forgiving of errors in any
specific ‘source’, passing it up to use other sources. Alternatively,
it should fail loudly when there’s an error, so that I can know to fix
or remove the offending ‘source’.
I was a huge Apple fan growing up and IBM was Apple’s enemy. Buying an
IBM computer would have been unthinkable.
Well, the unthinkable has happened. Of course IBM doesn’t make laptops
anymore, but their computers live on under the Lenovo name. I am the
proud owner of a new Lenovo Thinkpad T420S. I
love this computer. It’s an ugly black boxy thing, but it’s light (4
lbs), quiet and speedy. And the keyboard is just pure awesome. That’s
the main reason that I bought the T420S as opposed to the current T430
line. The new line has the chicklet keyboard that is being used on all
laptops these days. The T420 is the last one with the old-fashioned
clicky keyboard, which I love.
I also feel very lucky to get the deal that I got. I bought it from
Lenovo’s Outlet store, which had about
thirty T420s’s in stock when I was shopping. This one was about half
the price of the others, by my estimation. It’s so underpriced that
I’m wondering if I’m missing an obvious flaw, but I don’t see it.
(Please let me know if you do!)
Here’s a comparison between the specs of my computer compared to one
that was available at the Outlet store on October 4th, 2012:
| |
Mine |
Other one |
| Part Number |
417153U |
4170CTO |
| Processor |
Core i5-2540 |
Core i5-2540 |
| OS |
Windows 7 Pro |
Windows 7 Home |
| Graphics |
Intel HD3000 |
Intel HD3000 |
| Memory |
4 GB |
8 GB |
| Display |
14" 1600x900 HD+ |
14" 1600x900 HD+ |
| HD |
128GB SSD |
128GB SSD |
| Optical |
DVD recordable |
DVD recordable |
| Battery |
6-cell |
6-cell |
| Network |
Intel Centrino Advanced |
Not specified |
| Bluetooth |
V3.0 |
Not specified |
| Fingerprint reader |
No |
No |
| Price |
$ 663.72 |
$ 1,355.39 |
The RAM is better on the other model, but Windows 7 Professional is an
upgrade on my model. I don’t really understand why mine was so cheap,
but I’m pretty happy about it!
I added another 4G of RAM, moved Windows to a VirtualBox image and
installed Arch Linux with Xmonad. It takes about 10 seconds to get
from the BIOS screen to a working computer. I’ll post some info on my
setup in a future post.
Anika, Kavi, Mala and I are so proud to announce the birth of healthy, happy baby boy!
His name is Avik Puri Kurup and he was born at 11:01 PM on September
3rd, 2012. He is 6lbs, 12oz and about 19 inches long.
A few pics:
Avik arrives
Proud Dad
And the obligatory pseudo-nostalgic photo:
Nostalgic Avik
Mom and Baby are doing great! Thanks for all the well wishes and support!